Miss Georgia also a Budding Classical Musician

August 2003

On July 19th, at the Robert Ferst Auditorium (Georgia Tech), a large crowd greeted and cheered the 31 young women who participated in the annual pageant organized by IACA. With a heady display of talent and beauty, these young women ? who ranged from age 13 to age 24 ? won the hearts of the audience and the judges. Meghna Nagarajan was crowned Ms. India-Georgia 2003 and Vandana Agarwal was adjudged Ms. Teen India-Georgia. Rohini Jain, Karishma Kamdar, Movina Nagarajan and Nikhat Nazarali were declared runners up in their respective categories. Shanisha Kurani received the banner for Ms. Congeniality and Ms. Beautiful Smile.

Meghna, a sophomore at Georgia Tech, wants to get her master's in Electrical Engineering and then do her MBA. She has learned Carnatic, Hindustani and Western classical music. Vandana, who has an artistic bent, is interested in Indian classical dancing, pop dancing and oil painting. Her goal is to become a lawyer and be very active in the community.

The Beauty Pageant, an annual feature in Atlanta, was held under the auspices of the IACA. Kiran Agnihotri ? assisted by Lakshmi Rao, Geetha Murthy, Uma Narayan and Indu Sharma ? coordinated the event. A panel of 9 judges evaluated the contestants in various categories. Nethra Raghuraman, Femina Look of the Year 1997, was the Chief Guest for the evening.

The opening dance by all the 31 contestants kept the audience spellbound. Ash Chandler and Parjat Chandra ably performed as emcees for the event. Paddy Sharma, president of IACA, gave away the prizes to the winners and all the participants. The purpose of the pageant was to recognize and reward young Indian American ladies.

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